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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-22 Daily Xml
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Mental Health Services

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding mental health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Last week, the government announced its Urgent Mental Health Care Centre was being outsourced to a private partnership between Neami and RI International, the latter based in Arizona with no Australian presence. It has been said that the SA Health bid included greater clinical presence and would open the centre up for four hours more per day.

Last week, the Premier said the centre was being fast-tracked, but the original tender documents show that the centre was meant to be open by July, making it three months overdue. My questions to the minister are:

1. For what reasons was a private, internationally based company awarded the contract if our public system was offering additional services for the same price point?

2. What is the current time line for the centre opening, and was the Premier wrong when he said the centre was being fast-tracked, given the tender specified an opening date of three months ago?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:04): The honourable member's question is fallacious. The honourable member claims that the contract was awarded to a private international company. This is not true. First of all, it was awarded to an Australian non-government mental health provider. Its partner, RI International, is a not-for-profit international. So the Labor Party might decide they want to smear anybody that's not directly government funded—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —and staffed by public servants but we are in proud partnership with the non-government sector, particularly in mental health services, and we won't have them maligned.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The honourable member also refers to time frames. I would make the point that the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre that is being established here is one of eight adult community mental health centres to boost mental health support for adults, which are being delivered in partnership with the commonwealth. Of those eight, this is the first; this is the one that is at the front of delivering services.

We certainly would have liked to have been delivering it earlier, but I can assure you that we are delivering better health services for South Australians with mental health needs. For example, the Mental Health Co-Responders program, which has mental health clinicians going out with paramedics to respond to people who might otherwise need to go to an emergency department for their care, has been an extremely welcome service and is working well. We will continue to build our mental health services, and we won't have our partners maligned by the Labor Party.

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